“The Federal Reserve has wagered since August that it could afford to lower interest rates even as inflation picked back up for two crucial reasons. Price pressures from President Trump’s tariffs were likely to be temporary, and a weakening labor market would help to keep inflation in check as companies hesitated to make their products more expensive and wage growth stayed subdued,” the New York Times reports.
“The government shutdown, which is entering its fifth week, has made that path all the more treacherous. The federal workers who collect and report economic data on inflation, the labor market, wages and a range of other metrics are no longer performing that work, obscuring officials’ view of the economy at a moment when divisions over the policy outlook have sharpened.”
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